Pregnant woman is off life support

A brain-dead Texas woman who was 22 weeks pregnant was removed from life support yesterday, and her body was expected to be turned over to her family, attorneys for her husband announced.

A brain-dead Texas woman who was 22 weeks pregnant was removed from life support yesterday, and her body was expected to be turned over to her family, attorneys for her husband announced.

Marlise Munoz, 33, had been on life support for about two months at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth after falling unconscious in her home in November with a possible blood clot in her lung.

Although she was brain-dead, and considered dead under Texas law, the hospital refused to take her off life support, citing a state law that prohibits hospitals from suspending “life-sustaining treatment” for patients who are pregnant. Marlise Munoz was about 14 weeks pregnant when she fell ill on Nov. 26.

Her husband, Erick Munoz, sued the hospital for “cruel and obscene mutilation” of a dead body. On Friday, a state judge ordered the hospital to take her off life support by 5 p.m. today.

Texas District Judge R.H. Wallace ruled that the state’s pregnancy-protection law doesn’t apply to someone who is legally dead. Marlise Munoz’s fetus had been deemed “distinctly abnormal” by her husband’s attorneys. In a joint affidavit filed before the Friday hearing, the hospital acknowledged that the fetus was not viable.

The hospital had considered whether to appeal but announced yesterday it would comply.

Attorneys for Erick Munoz said his wife was taken off life support at 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

“The Munoz and Machado families will now proceed with the somber task of laying Marlise Munoz’s body to rest, and grieving over the great loss that has been suffered,” Heather King and Jessica Janicek, attorneys for Erick Munoz, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

“May Marlise Munoz finally rest in peace, and her family find the strength to complete what has been an unbearably long and arduous journey.”

Both husband and wife were paramedics and had seen death. Erick Munoz said his wife had said she did not want to be kept alive by machines in such a situation.